Assess and respond to the needs of diverse communities.

2.1 Planning: Applies a mission driven approach to organizational planning. 

2.2 Assessment: Demonstrates the ability to engage in assessment of services, collections, products, user experience, and information technologies and articulates its importance in information provision. 

2.3 Design: Designs services, collections, products, and user information technologies to respond to the needs of diverse communities with an emphasis on user-centered design. 

2.4 Outreach: Demonstrates the ability to communicate with diverse members of the community. Articulates the importance of outreach. 

Artifacts:

LIS 654 Collaboration/Co-Teaching Interview & Student Needs Analysis (2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4)

LIS 635 Professional Development Assignment: "How to Use Wakelet (the teacher’s pinterest!)" (2.3, 2.4)

PLO 2 looks at regularly assessing the needs of the community so that we can best serve them. Through collaboration, data-driven planning and assessment, and outreach leading to an informed learning community, we can properly understand the needs of those we serve. 

My assignment from LIS 654, Collaboration/Co-Teaching Interview & Student Needs Analysis, is a good example of this PLO. In interviewing my 6th grade ELA teacher, I was able to gather data on her teaching needs and the unique needs of her students. In advance of our meeting, I reviewed her ELA curriculum map and provided her with a list of 22 questions that I would be asking her. In this way, I was planning for success (2.1). Talking together, I was able to assess her specific needs as well as gather intel on her perceptions of my role as School Librarian. It was clear she needed the most help with her non-fiction unit, specifically Common Core Standards RI 6.1 (cite relevant sources) and RI 6.2 (determining the main/central idea of a text). It was also clear that our interview provided her with clarity about my instructional role as a partner in co-planning and co-executing lessons embedded with inquiry and critical-thinking while using evidence-based practices to further assess student knowledge acquisition (2.2). In reaching out to discuss her unique needs, a pathway was opened, growing her understanding of how her School Librarian can help her  (2.4). Often School Librarians can feel siloed in their role and space. Through outreach, relationships with the greater learning community are built, enlightening them on what's possible when they welcome the School Librarian into curriculum planning and teaching. Through this meeting and needs analysis, I was able to target the skills most in need of my help. From there I was able to craft user-centered lesson designs that zeroed in on those critical skills (CCS RI 6.1 and 6.2). “When instruction in the library is targeted to the skills most appropriate for learning the classroom content, then students develop greater understandings, both in content and in skill” (Arnone et al., 2012, p. 3) (2.3).

My Professional Development Assignment, "How to Use Wakelet (the teacher’s pinterest!)" from LIS 635 highlights both design (2.3) and outreach (2.4) for the benefit of my learning community. In designing an engaging and interactive PD session for my teachers, I was able to introduce them to a technology tool that could improve the organization of materials on a curated digital platform applicable to all their diverse curriculum needs (2.3). Modeling how to use the platform and providing examples scaffolded their learning, while spending dedicated, structured time built relationship and trust between us (2.4). 

The skills learned in these assignments will help me in carrying out the goals of PLO 2 for years to come. Already, they have been applied to my current work. As I rotate between grade-level and department meetings at our weekly PD afternoons, I am constantly assessing teacher needs, taking both mental notes and informal polls on where help is needed. I have reached out directly at these sessions, as well as through follow-up emails to schedule and organize planning meetings to address established needs. For many of these communications, formalized action plans were created resulting in Librarian-created user-centered lessons, workshops, and/or curated reading lists in our cataloguing system. Effective, consistent, and professional outreach has been key to it all.

References:

Arnone, M. P., Stripling, B. K., Berger, P., & Small, R. V. (Eds.). (2012). Teaching for inquiry:  Engaging the learner within. 

Neal-Schuman Publishers.